As we mentioned here, as part of our hiatus process, we wanted to offer a venue for input from members. We did take the time to first sort things out internally (within the maintainer team) and are feeling optimistic about our progress (will provide more specifics when we re-open).

But we also want to ask you -- What do you need from the maintainer team to make VP a safe and accountable space for you? How can we work to make that happen more readily, effectively, and consistently?

I'm writing on behalf of the VP Team to let everyone know about the pretty big -- but temporary -- change mangofandango mentioned here.

At 8:00pm EDT on March 16, 2015 (that's about 24 hours from now), VP will temporarily become a moderated community and will not be accepting new entries. VP on LJ will remain closed through that same time on March 30, 2015. At that point, it'll be business as usual once again. Any entries submitted during our two-week LJ hiatus will be rejected (with a copy of this notice), and not posted.

We are taking this step to re-evaluate, re-assess and rejuvenate. The VP Team will be using this hiatus to discuss policy, to discuss focus, and to better equip ourselves to continue to make VP a safe and valuable space. In short, we're doing it because we care about VP.

Because we want our fabulous members to have a part in VP's "renovation," we encourage you to visit contact_vp to leave us your honest and helpful feedback. A post will be available for your helpful comments on Saturday, March 28. Be advised, however, that although we plan to keep an eye on CVP, we don't plan to respond to non-urgent situation until after VP on LJ re-opens. We also encourage you to use CVP in the meantime to contact us regarding any comments on current entries that need our attention.

We care deeply about our members, and want you to know that we're taking this step to help you. It might seem scary, but remember that not all VP resources will be out of your reach! You can always make use of the links on the VP on LJ sidebar (accessed through the community main page), VP on LJ's tagged posts, and our VP community on Dreamwidth.

We thank you in advance for your understanding and assistance, and we look forward to re-opening the community on March 30th!

¡Vulva la revolución!ToriFor the VP Team

Edit 3/16 -- Just confirming that VP is now set to moderation -- and will be closed to new entries for the next 2 weeks.

I just wanted to let you know about the above post. The image is NSFW and when I asked her to put it behind a cut all the comments are screened. I don't know if she can see my comment or not but it really needs behind a cut. Thanks.

In the original comment, the commenter mentioned that if their MD says all is okay, that OP should be good. They also said, "Good luck! I'm jealous... wish I was having a good time to have a problem with! You go girl!"

I have experience with pelvic pain, including vaginal, and I wanted OP to know that MDs aren't always right, just because they're not trained in pelvic disorders and sexual pain. I also felt really dismissed by their comment on "having a good time to have a problem with." I let the commenter know that pelvic pain, including sexual pain, isn't ever a good time.

They responded defensively, saying their comment was for OP and that OPs pain is from having a new partner and trying new things. I don't really know if ya'll want to intervene yet, but I find it incredibly offensive that they think sexual pain is a good time just because someone has a new partner and is trying new things. It is absolutely not. It can be incredibly devastating, and it's really not okay they dismissed it in the first place and then dismissed it again when they were called out on it.

Someone posted a cautionary tale that I found offensive and harmful. There are a number of things wrong with it, IMO, but what jumped out at me was "protect myself from boys" and the doctor "looming" over the narrator, neither of which is particularly helpful.

This post http://vaginapagina.livejournal.com/22173087.html has a graphic picture outside of the cut. They had a different one that was just as graphic up and were asked to put it under a cut and then changed it to the current one. Please investigate.

I assume that there are one or more mods monitoring this post, but I wanted to ask about the appropriateness of the comments, which are starting to move from "We accept your situation here are some supportive and gentle suggestions" to "your relationship is unhealthy and you need to change it."

Is a comment like "My take on this is that your mom is, indeed, irrationally controlling and intrusive. You need some separation from her" crossing the line for VP? What about "You are an adult. You need to set some boundaries"?

These comments were exactly what I was thinking, but I wouldn't have written them down because it's not what the OP asked for and "shoulds" are generally discouraged in VP. What do you think?

This is just a quick heads-up to let you know that our main website might be down overnight: we're transferring to new hosting/servers, and it can take a few hours for everything to update.

This is the first step in a serious website revamp: the contacts page doesn't have all our new SSMs, for instance, and we're well aware that our links section is pretty much a dinosaur! Over the next few weeks and months we're expecting to provide a series of posts requesting feedback on new content.

As we can all tell, LiveJournal has been dying a slow death since things like Facebook and Reddit have become more popular. I held on to my LJ habit because of VaginaPagina.

I have decided that this page is no longer worth it. I received a SSR warning about my use of the phrase "itch like crazy" with the admonition that it might be offensive to those struggling with mental illness.

I believe in avoiding being intentionally offensive. No one should feel like they are being personally attacked.

However, this community has become so obsessed with protecting people's delicate feelings from accidental innocuous insults that it becomes nearly impossible to have authentic discourse. Having to scour one's post looking for possible slights against certain groups is a paranoia-inducing task. It makes it feel like it's not worthwhile to contribute.

So I am done. I liked to think that as a Women's Health RN I could add something of value to this community, but it's obvious that this is no longer a safe place for me to speak my mind.

Without VP, there's no point for me to continue monitoring LiveJournal. So, thank you for helping me cut ties without regret.